BAYAMBANG
CENTRAL SCHOOL: A Hundred and Three and Counting…
by Carmencita Pacis
Bayambang Central School is a product of Act No. 1801 framed by Assemblyman
Isauro Gabaldon of Nueva Ecija. Built in 1914, the school celebrated its
hundredth or centennial year in 2014 making it the pioneer school in the
municipality of Bayambang, Pangasinan. It is located in Rizal Ave. behind the
Bayambang Municipal Hall complex and in front of the Bayambang National High
School. It is within short walking distance of the St. Vincent Ferrer Parish
Church, the town plaza, the public market, and other key places in the
municipality.
History
In 1914, seven years after the Gabaldon Act of 1907* was signed into law, the
first Gabaldon building in Bayambang was built which came to be known as
Bayambang Elementary School (thereby making it the pioneer school in
Bayambang). And of the many towns and cities in the country, the town of
Bayambang is one of the luckiest because it was the beneficiary of not just one
but five Gabaldon buildings, three concrete and two wooden, in the elementary
school, excluding the Gabaldon buildings of a nearby university.
The first of the five Gabaldons was a three-classroom structure constructed in
March 1914 at the southeastern part of the approximately three-hectare
territory.
In 1922, the second building, an elevated bungalow-type structure was finished.
It has all the rooms of an ideal house with the ‘modern amenities’ of its time.
It was aptly used as the Home Economics building.
The buildings, characteristic of all the Gabaldons
nationwide, have architectural harmony with the main building and the other
accessory structures with expansive high-ceilinged rooms and tall spacious
windows that allow the humid tropical air to circulate within the classrooms.
These augur well for ideal and conductive teaching and learning process, thus,
probably becoming the yardstick of the criteria for classroom evaluation of the
Department of Education, which include ‘spacious and well-ventilated rooms’ in
the succeeding years. It makes one wonder how learning took place in such
environment when learners were few, leaving the rooms and halls larger, and
teachers were, according to accounts, strict in every sense of the word. No
wonder pupils before were better learned and better equipped with reading and
communication skills especially in English, making them eligible to teach after
graduating from the seventh grade.
In between the construction of these big structures, between the constructions
of these big structures, two wooden Gabaldon buildings were also built. The
wooden four-classroom unit used to be located where the intermediate grade
rooms are presently situated, while the smaller three-room unit stood where the
grade three Marcos type rooms now stand.
However, the two buildings did not stand the elements and
termite infestation and had to be torn down to make way for new rooms.
The ‘house’ has a wide veranda running along its façade all the way to its left
flank. The bedroom has a capacious wooden bed complete with embroidered bed
cover and pillow cases. Right outside the bedroom is the living room furnished
with gleaming wood set and rattan chairs all adorned with crochet dollies.
Adjoining the sala is the dining room with big display cabinets arrayed with
cutlery and silverwares. Behind the dining room wall is the kitchen equipped
with both double burner woodstove that can accommodate big pots and pans, and a
gas range. Another interesting feature of the building is the washroom that
boasts of an enormous porcelain bathtub, sink and toilet bowl.
The four walls of the house feature wide panoramic windows with sliding capiz
shutters that cool the atmosphere year round.
The building is remarkably equipped with a water system of its own, which is
not really surprising because it was constructed around the Insular Government
period, an era that introduced material comfort to people’s consciousness brought
about by the Americans.
The last to be completed was the biggest of the Gabaldons
that was finished in 1924. Located some meters from the first one, it has
twelve classrooms and a small office at the rear end. It became the main
building of the Central School, and has served as the learning area of the
first and second grades for the longest time until its disheartening end.
During World War II, Japanese troops used the Gabaldon buildings in Bayambang
Central School and Pangasinan Normal School (now Pangasinan State University)
as garrisons.
Recent past
Bayambang Central School has 41 classrooms excluding the charred thirteen-room
Gabaldon building, two administrative offices (the supervisor’s and the
principal’s, a computer room, a canteen, a clinic, and a mini-teacher’s lounge
for fifth grade teachers, accommodating approximately two thousand pupils, 57
teaching personnel, a liaison officer/school clerk, four utility workers and
the school principal.
Present
As of writing, Bayambang Central School temporarily holds classes at the
proposed relocation site in Barangay Magsaysay. The temporary transfer took
effect after the Regional Trial Court in San Carlos City, Pangasinan, issued a
Temporary Restraining Order (TRO). The RTC issued the TRO against the
respondents, former school head Danilo D. Lopez, all teachers under his
authority, and former Schools Division Superintendent Dr. Alma Ruby C. Torio
after some teachers refused to comply with Mayor Ricardo M. Camacho’s Executive
Order demanding the school populace to “relocate temporarily to the said site
until after the rainy season.”
The Executive Order was an offshoot of Mr. Lopez’s letter requesting the local
government “to relocate the students and teachers to a safe location due to
widespread dengue cases among the pupils and flooding during rainy season.”
Sadly, of the 41 classrooms and other facilities, not a single room was spared
the looting and blatant destruction by unscrupulous persons days after the pro
term transfer was effected. The rooms were ransacked and stripped of all conceivable
materials serviceable to man. Fortunately, several philanthropic business
tycoons, NGO’s concerned citizens and government officials led by Senator
Cynthia Villar started the reconstruction and refurnishing of the vandalized
classrooms.
Meanwhile, the respondents and the Department of Education await the decision
of the Court of appeals to lay, finally, the dilemma to rest.
The five buildings speak of a grandeur the past has seen.
Their wide stairways and open hallways were playgrounds to countless learners
who troop year in year out to the institution. The dark cavernous spaces under
their elevated floors are favorite haunts of the more adventurous when playing
hide – and – seek, the favorite pastime of many a children. They were the
second home of pupils who have come and gone, who have made a mark and
continues making their mark in the society. They were silent witnesses to the
history and growth of Bayambang from a rusting town into a busting place
nearing cityhood.
In the subsequent years, more classrooms were constructed funded by national
and provincial governments and donations from private citizens to accommodate
the growing number of students populace.
Intellectuals and respected citizens of Bayambang with a few from outside of
the town served as school head of the century old institution, the latest of
whom is the feisty Dr. Sherlita F. Baratang of Brgy. Tococ this municipality.
Catastrophe
A few years before the school can celebrate its hundredth founding year, the
first concrete Gabaldon building was demolished due to infestation of termites.
Within five years of the demolition, tragedy struck when a fire gutted the
biggest Gabaldon at the opening of the school year in June 2012 due to faulty
electrical wiring, according to the Bureau of Fire and Protection. This
displaced some 500 first and second graders occupying the13 classrooms.
The shortage of classrooms resulted to the shifting of
classes between the first, second and third classes. In addition, the Home
Economics building was also converted into classrooms to accommodate other primary
classes.
(Published with permission from the author)
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